Wow Air Joins 20 Other Airlines That Folded in Just the Past Year

Add Wow Air to a long — and growing — list of airline failures around the world. Like Primera Air before it and perhaps Norwegian before long, the Icelandic carrier was a victim of intense fare competition on transatlantic routes. In general, airlines that have perished in the last year have been small, lacking the scale and capital resources to endure through competitive battles, fuel shocks, and other challenges. The last big airlines to collapse were Air Berlin and Monarch in 2017. (A few others, like Flybe in the UK, were headed for collapse before being rescued through takeovers.)

Senior Editor Andrew Sheivachman contributed to this report.